


your eyes are full of stardust (have you ever wondered why?)

by MashpotatoeQueen5



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ancient Lore, BAMF Coran (Voltron), BAMF Hunk (Voltron), BAMF Keith (Voltron), BAMF Lance (Voltron), BAMF Pidge | Katie Holt, BAMF Shiro (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Elemental Magic, Gen, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Art, Introspection, Legends, Origin Myths, Powerful Paladins, Supernatural Elements, What if the paladins weren't just associated with certain elements, What if they WERE the elements, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 20:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19092862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MashpotatoeQueen5/pseuds/MashpotatoeQueen5
Summary: In the back of Lance's mind, Allura whispers, “Can you feel it?” with the constancy of the tides. “Waves form and fall apart with your every breath, and your every hope becomes a trickling brook. When you sing, rain falls onto dry earth, and when you cry, a land begins to flood. All the oceans are living with you, Lance, and your eyes are full of stardust.”Lance remembers swimming and only coming up for air when he remembered he’s supposed to need to breathe, and decides that limits can no longer hold him.“What do I care how old I am?” and his voice breaks before it becomes something that is not quite his own, older than any grand river grinding its way through earth and stone to make deep seated canyons, all in its endless mission to reach the sea.The voice is of the Ancients, and it clambers out of his chest like a siren’s song.Eyes glow blue, and the alien takes a step back as the once calm ocean begins to rise and thrash.“The ocean,” Lance calls, “is old as fuck.”(And when he smirks, it is unholy.)“It will still drown your ass with vigor.”(In which the Paladins are not so much humans as they are ancient primordial beings reborn into physical bodies...)





	your eyes are full of stardust (have you ever wondered why?)

**Author's Note:**

> Full credit to Joker/Ace from tumblr for the barebones of this idea, and basically all of everything in Lance's scene. Check out the art that inspired this post and make sure you look at some of their other art, cause it's really good!
> 
> https://joker-ace.tumblr.com/post/151244350514/saw-one-of-my-fav-quotes-on-here-again-and-built

_Breathe._

Can you feel it?

_Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump._

The air going in, the air going out?

 

_“Whooooah, dude! That was amazing! How the hell did you hold your breath for that long?”_

_Lance huffs, dries his hair with a towel. Someone congratulates him for winning the breath holding contest and he waves it off, laughs, preens._

_“Dunno: I guess I just went swimming a lot down in Cuba.”_

_The guys nods, like that means something, like it explains it. Lance doesn’t tell him that he’s been underwater longer, that sometimes, he swims down, down, down and only comes back up when he remembers he’s supposed to need to breathe._

 

_Breathe_

Can you feel it?

_Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump._

The blood pumping in your veins, swirling and rushing all around?

 

 _“Outside, young lady. You’ve been cooped up in your room for_ days- _it’s not healthy._

_Pidge glares, gesticulates wildly at the video game level half completed on the screen._

_“But Mom!”_

_“No buts! C’mon, kiddo: you might have fun!”_

_The front door gets slammed shut soundly behind her, and Pidge rolls her eyes and takes the short walk to the park. She finds a shady patch of grass and a tree trunk to lean on, pulls out the phone she managed to smuggle into her sleeve and starts messing with it._

_An hour later, she gets up and leaves. She does not look back, nor notice the sudden flowers that have popped up in the once empty grove._

 

_Breathe_

Can you feel it?

_Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump._

The muscles under your skin, contracting and expanding and _moving?_

 

_“You’re a lot sturdier than I thought.”_

_Hunk looks up._

_“Huh?”_

_His climbing partner looks down, puts one hand in front of the other and climbs ever higher._

_“You. You’re a lot more- sturdy. When we were first paired up I was like- ugh, this is gonna be awful, he’s gonna be so clumsy, we’re never gonna get_ anywhere- _but you- you’re- sturdy.”_

_Hunk frowns, huffs hair out of his eyes._

_“Thanks, I guess.”_

_The boy nods, keeps climbing. Hunk follows him, and he finds places to put his hands and feet like it’s as natural as breathing, like the cliff face itself is molding its surface to meet his needs._

Sturdy…. _He likes the sound of that._

 

_Breathe_

Can you feel it?

_Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump._

The rhythm of your heartbeat, the way it _pounds?_

 

 _“Born natural,”_ _an observer murmurs through the intercom, something like awe in their tone._

 _Keith ignores them, twists,_ soars, _pulls the controls back, back, points the jet_ up, _and then boosts the thrusters._

 _Higher, higher, and the higher they are the more it feels like Keith can_ breathe.

_“Cadet, please return to the runway: you’re altitude is exceeding the restricted limits-”_

_For a moment, Keith wants to just keep going, wants to go up and up and up until the whole wide world gets left behind._

_But he doesn’t, lets himself dip into freefall, and just for a moment, closes his eyes._

_He wonders why people ever let their feet touch the ground._

 

_Breathe_

Can you feel it?

_Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump._

That’s you, all you, every movement and breath and thought. You are alive, you are living.

 

_“Beautiful, aren’t they?”_

_Shiro has always wanted to touch the stars, has always wanted to go beyond. Sometimes, he feels like the only thing that’s keeping him tethered to the ground is Adam’s grip on his fingers._

_Sometimes, even that feels loose, like all Shiro would have to do would be let go, and then he’d be up there._

_Not now, though. Now, Shiro feels the calluses of their interlaced hands, and thinks he could stay on the earth forever, if only for this._

_“Yeah,” he says, leans his head back as far as they go, “they are.”_

They’re calling for me, _he wants to whisper,_ I can hear them. Can you?

_But he doesn’t._

 

_Breathe_

Can you feel it?

_The ocean stirs and the earth rumbles, and all around us the sky breathes. Plants grow and stars burst, and all of existence trembles and tenses and releases, all at once._

That’s you, too. That’s you, all you, every movement and breath and thought. You are alive, you are living.

So is everything else. You are living with it, you are living for it. The oceans are thrumming in your veins, the atmosphere expanding in your chest, the earth building up your sturdy frame, the forests growing in time with your heartbeat.

 

(Your eyes are full of stardust, children. Have you ever wondered why?)

 

* * *

 

_. . . C a n   y o u  f e e l   i t ?_

 

* * *

 

**_The Ancients have always been there, from the beginning of time._ **

**_(Or perhaps they weren’t, and they were only there once time began to have meaning.)_ **

_**They are known by many names, and they answer to them all. They are your science, and your gods. They are the unexplaineable and the explained. They are your elders, they are your children.** _

**_They are living._ **

**_(They exist, and they are living, and those are two very separate things.)_ **

 

 

**_The Cosmos, they say, came first._ **

**_Poor Cosmos, all alone, nothing but everything to keep them company. They stretched on forever and they were caught in every moment and in nothing at all, and there was no one besides them._ **

**_But Cosmos is infinite and endless, and they would not be held back, not by anything, even themselves._ **

 

 _“You think you can defeat me_ ?” Zarkon asks, voice shattering into snarls and hate. _“You? You are  n o t h i n g.”_

Shiro’s grip on his bayard tightens, and he breathes in and he breathes out.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Allura whispers _, “Can you feel it?”_ with all the reverence of a prayer. _“The universe expands with your every breath, and your every wish creates a shooting star. When you dance, meteor showers begin, and when you fight solar flares burst into existence. All the cosmos are living with you, Shiro, your eyes are full of stardust.”_

He is not nothing: the stars call his name like they want him to come home.

And suddenly Shiro is standing, and his brown orbs are flaring bright with purple light. He is glowing, ethereal, and he steps forward like his feet don’t even need to touch the ground.

(Maybe they don’t. Maybe the only thing keeping him there is the ghost of a grip on his calloused hand.)

When he speaks, his voice is somehow not quite his own. It is older and grander, power fused with every syllable. It is the voice of the Ancients, and it fills up his chest like a shining sun.

“ _No_ ,” he says, “ _You have become nothing,”_ and the light in Zarkon’s purple orbs flickers out.

“IMPOSSIBLE!” Zarkon roars, and he charges.

(It is not impossible. Cosmos is infinite and endless, and they will not be held back, not by anything, even themselves. The moment Zarkon forgets this is the moment that he is lost.)

 

* * *

 

_“Coran…. These- humans. They can’t be the paladins. Just- look at them.”_

_The red headed advisor leans forwards, eyes ancient and tired. He has seen the passing eras, in his lifetime. This is just one more._

_“Give them time,” he says, and he watches a new age creep in._

_“But what about the Ancients? I see no sign in them- no power-”_

_“Give them time,” Coran says again, and Allura falls silent._

_And they give them time: it is all they have left to give._

 

* * *

* * *

 

**_The Earth, they say, was born when Cosmos molded themself into a spot so small and concentrated that they became solid and real. Earth became structure, the foundations of everything after. Earth was born and everywhere they chose, planets and moons and comets formed, crystallizing and shifting and moving all around._ **

**_“Steady Earth,” called Cosmos, “what is it you wish?”_ **

**_And Earth responded that they wished only to be held in the Cosmos arms forever, to never be parted but for want to breathe._ **

**_And Cosmos agreed, and they held them._ **

 

Hunk is three hundred miles below a planet’s surface, and he has never felt so calm. All around him, aliens are sweating and murmuring, trembling in their iron wrought cages and waiting for death, little hope remaining to them, little life left to give.

The planet is collapsing, the Galra had mined too deep, blown up one too many caverns, and the aliens were looking at each other so tired and scared.

And Hunk looks at them and something rumbles angrily in his chest, because, no, no this planet has thousands of years left to give before it gives in and collapses into nothing. It was not these people’s fault, they should not suffer for it.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Allura whispers, “ _Can you feel it?_ ” with all the steadiness of stone. _“Planets spin on their axis with your every breath, and your every dream makes somewhere the soil fertile and rich. When you create, new crystals form deep under the ground, and when you rage deep caverns crack into existence. All the earth is living with you, Hunk, your eyes are full of stardust.”_

People called him sturdy, they did not know he formed their very foundations, and every trodden path is but a trodden down thought to him, visited again and again until everything is packed and firm.

His eyes begin to glow yellow, and they shine with all the strength of every fiery planet core.

“ _Don’t worry_ ,” he says, and his voice is not quite his own. It is older than any rock or grand canyon, the foundation of every power and strength. It is the voice of the Ancients, and it rumbles through his chest like an avalanche. “ _Everything is going to be alright.”_

He lifts his arms, and all around him the planet stops trembling and falling apart. Tunnels close in, caverns fill up, and everything becomes new as of old, untouched and unhurt, foundations once again established and strong.

“ _Follow me_ ,” he says, and iron cages twist and bend and _break,_ the metals forming them bowing to their master’s call. The aliens follow too, speechless.

Hunk keeps walking, and he finds places to put his feet as natural as breathing, the solid earth before him molding itself to meet his needs, creating a way to the surface.

 

* * *

 

_Hunk frowns._

_“So wait- you’re telling me I have like- magical earth powers?”_

_Allura laughs, places a hand on his shoulder._

_“No, Hunk, you_ are Earth. _You are one of the Ancients, you are rock and stone and ore, born into flesh and bone. You have_ been _since the beginning of time, and you have been incarnated to_ live _here and now.”_

_The humans trade skeptical glances. Hunk’s frown gets deeper._

_“Nope. No. Not following. I’m even_ more _confused now.”_

_Pidge pipes up._

_“Not to burst your bubble, princess, but that… makes no scientific sense. At all. Like- what your saying here is completely impossible. We’re not- things. Or whatever. We’re just_ people.”

_“Exactly,” says Allura, and her eyes seem to almost glow, “you are of the Ancients.”_

_(The Paladins do not understand, yet. But they will with time. All becomes known with time, if you are willing to wait long enough.)_

* * *

* * *

 

**_Cosmos held the Earth until they parted to breathe, and with each breath they breathed Sky into existence, who kept them connected even when they were apart, a quiet bond that with every day became stronger, until it was an entity all of its own, and was welcomed. All around, planets of earth and stone were embraced by Sky, who playfully created a hundred atmospheres of a hundred kinds, be they foggy and rich or clear or dry._ **

**_“Hopeful Sky,” called Cosmos and Earth, “what is it you wish?”_ **

**_And Sky responded that they wished only to be able to free forever, to never be restricted but for want to hold._ **

**_And Cosmos and Earth agreed, and they watched them soar._ **

 

“Restrain the prisoner _.”_

Keith snarls, pulls at the too-tight grip on his arms, struggles to lash out with his legs, even as blood drips down from the slash marks on his thigh. His hair is in his eyes, and his heart is pounding wildly in his chest, and as they drag him forward he catches sight of the table they want to strap him on, the metal cables, the _muzzle,_ and something somewhere deep down inside him freezes tight and cold and then burst out in a gush of a breath.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Allura whispers, “ _Can you feel it?”_ with all the lightness of air. _“The wind blows with your every breath, and your every goal blows across horizons in clouds. When you draw, an new atmosphere forms around a planet, and when you hurt, winds blow up fierce sandstorms that blaze through a hundred deserts. All the skies are living with you, Keith, your eyes are full of stardust.”_

He remembers wondering why people ever let their feet touch the ground, and he holds onto that thought like it is a lifeline. Then he lets go and slips into a free fall, and it feels like flying.

Eyes glow red like the colour of sunsets, as dangerous as poisonous gas, and lively as a tornado, and when he speaks it is in a voice that is not quite his own.

It is older than any wind that once filled the sails of early explorers, than the air that expanded the lungs of our ancestors, and those before them. It is the voice of the Ancients, and it echoes through his chest with every vibration to ever sound.

“ _You can’t hold me,”_ he snarls, and all around him the winds of a thousand planets blast through the purple metallic hallways, knocking everyone but him to the ground, _“Don’t even try.”_

The warship, from where it is slowly rising to get into outer space, suddenly halts, the planet’s air refusing to support it, and then it drops from gravity’s hold and crashes to the earth..

And, just for a moment, Keith closes his eyes, and lets himself dip into the endlessness, and the moment becomes forever.

 

* * *

 

_“So the lions give us superpowers.”_

_Coran laughs, shaking his head, patting Lance on the arm._

_“Ah, no, Number Three, not quite. The, uh- superpowers, as you call them, are already a part of you. It’s all there, everything is there, has always been there, it’s just- blocked. As you live and feel act, so does the ocean all around you. The Lion, once you have bonded, will just allow you to recognize it, to draw out your true self, to understand your true self-”_

_The Paladin in blue cuts him off, arms folded around himself, something small in his stature. Coran watches, wonders if somewhere droughts suddenly dry up green plains, if somewhere a village runs scared from a flash flood, or a great storm brews on some distant horizon._

_“And if this is it? If my true self is just- this? Some kid from Cuba who just wants to go home?”_

_The advisor turns Lance’s lanky frame so that they face each other. He doesn’t say that he can sense it, the way that the ocean thrashes and hums and_ sings _in Lance’s veins. That when Lance wishes he could be in the rain, precipitation amongst the known universe increases by roughly 61% for a week. That Coran has lived for centuries and knows when he is in the presence of something truly old and powerful beyond him._

_He does not say that the Ancients are reborn each time they fall from life’s fragile embrace so that they can be forever young in an existence that means that they will be forever old, but the truth thrums in time with his heartbeat, and he looks Lance in the eyes with a kind of certainty that would scare lesser men._

_(But the sea has never been anything but mighty, and the boy does not back down, and does not falter.)_

_“Then there could be no greater Paladin for the Blue Lion, and we would welcome you with honour.”_

 

* * *

* * *

 

**_Cosmos and Earth watched Sky soar until they wanted to be held, and each time they touched Sky left the smallest amounts of themselves behind with Earth, so that they would never be lonely. And Sky, limitless, left so much of themselves that Ocean was born, and Ocean, forever dancing, would travel to and fro._ **

**_All around the universe, bodies of great liquids spilled into existence, filling up those empty ravines and chasing Earth down those trodden paths, spreading and contorting until all was comfortable and grand._ **

**_“Dancing Ocean,” called Cosmos, Earth, and Sky, “what is it you wish?”_ **

**_And Ocean responded that they wished only to play forever, to never be lonesome or limited except for want to release it all and let go._ **

**_And Cosmos, Earth, and Sky agreed, and they played with them._ **

 

“You can’t escape: it’s best to just give in.”

The alien looks ancient, layers upon layers of grey grimy skin folding in and over itself. Lance squints at him through a blurred gaze, hunched over himself and catching his breath. The alien has the same look in their eyes as Coran sometimes does, the one that says they’ve watched the ages pass, have watched empires rise and falls, the ones that you look at until you feel so insignificant and small you have to look away.

Except Lance doesn’t feel small, not this time.

It doesn’t make any sense: he’s been pursued across countless of miles. His lion is out of reach, his legs are trembling with exertion, and he hasn’t eaten or drinken anything in days. Add that to the several tears in his suit and missing helmet, Lance has minimal resources working in his favour.

He’s beyond tired, and this guy has been following him for _days,_ and he’s reaching his limit.

And now he’s cornered on some sort of beach, water an unearthly glowing blue behind him and sand a pale lime green under his feet, and he just- stumbles forward, stumbles forward until his suit is soaked through up to his knees, and tries to breathe.

For a moment, he looks down at the water in front of him. He could probably swim away: he doesn’t think the alien can swim. But… but what then? There’s nothing for him out there, and so decides to stay.

He straightens, still breathing hard, raises his bayard.

(Limits, limits, he’s held back by all these limits.)

“Awww,” gurgles the alien, “Are you going to try and fight me, Paladin?”

The massive being looms forward, and the sound of his voice grates at Lance’s ears.

“Do you think you can defeat me? You are but a _child_.”

Ancient eyes look down on him, and he refuses to feel small.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Allura whispers, _“Can you feel it?”_ with all the constancy of the tides. _"Waves form and fall apart with your every breath, and your every hope becomes a trickling brook. When you sing, rain falls on earth caught in endless drought, and when you cry, somewhere a land begins to flood. All the oceans are living with you, Lance, and your eyes are full of stardust.”_

Lance remembers swimming down, down, down and only coming back up when he remembered he’s supposed to need to breathe, and decides that limits can no longer hold him.

 _“What do I care how old I am?”_ and his voice breaks before it becomes something that is not quite his own, older than any grand river grinding its way through earth and stone to make deep seated canyons, all in its endless mission to reach the sea.

The voice is of the Ancients, and it clambers out of his chest like a siren’s song.

Eyes glow blue, bright blue, and the alien takes a step back as the once calm ocean begins to rise and thrash, as clear skies become stormy and rain begins to pour down in torrents.

 _“The ocean,”_ Lance calls, _“is old as fuck._ ”

(And when he smirks, it is unholy.)

_“I_ _t will still drown your ass with vigour.”_

 

* * *

 

_Keith feels limited without limits. There are new horizons carved into his every bones and now that he is aware of them every step feels like treading to a different atmosphere. His universe has somehow become so big, and now that it has he feels like this body is too small, false skin stretched across flesh and muscle in hopes of containing all those saturated sunrises captured inside his chest, spilling out of every pore with no hopes of stopping._

_To take something so abstract and make it concrete. It’s shaking him apart. Its ballooning him up. He feels like the sharpest whirlwind and the calmest breeze._

_Shiro has taken to holding him on those nights neither of them can sleep, has taken to tucking Keith’s smaller frame under his chin and trying to reiterate this new form with both the little boy he watched grow up and that ancient entity he can see flash behind the teen’s eyes whenever he looks for it._

_They are one and the same. That is the hard part: they are one and the same._

_Shiro can taste nebulas on his tongue._

_He feels like he’s been sleepwalking for a thousand years, and for the first time he has finally opened his eyes all the way, to take in the real world as it truly is._

_Except now his eyes are open they do not want to close, and Shiro wonders if you can ever truly be human with power such as this, with meteorites embedded in your heart beat and black holes trapped in your fingernails. He wonders if you can ever truly be human when you’ve forgotten how to dream, if you hear stars calling your name and you have started calling back._

_He wonders, he wonders, but even the vastness of space has no answers, and Keith is curled up besides him on the couch, and Shiro has grown use to witnessing air currents sing with the teen’s every breath._

_What does it mean to make the abstract concrete?_

_What does it mean to be both, all at once?_

 

* * *

* * *

 

**_Cosmos, Earth, and Sky played with Ocean, and together they created many things beyond imagination, for the universe was nothing but themselves and their hopes and dreams and goals and wishes, and all they wanted it to be._ **

**_One day they stumbled across Life, who nodded to them all and told them that, through their play, they were created, and the others welcomed them._ **

**_All around, Life sprung into existence, great living things that rose towards the stars, and then great colourful bright spots from brown Earth. And Life filled every space with something new and wonderful, from the deepest ocean trenches to the farthest reaches of the stars. And they created animals and people of all sorts and kinds, to fill the many planets and homes that the Ancients had created through their actions and joys and sorrows._ **

**_And the Ancients watched, and were joyful, and life was good._ **

**_“Curious Life,” called Cosmos, Earth, Sky, and Ocean, “what is it you wish?”_ **

**_And Life responded that they wished only to live and grow forever, to have just this, just them, learning and expanding across their endless lifetimes._ **

**_And Cosmos, Earth, Sky, and Ocean agreed, and they took Life by the hand so that instead of just existing, they could begin to live._ **

 

“Come out, little Paladin, don’t you want to play?”

Pidge swipes blood out of her eyes, pushes back her sweaty fringe so that she could see. Her ribs are bruised and she’s pretty sure her ankle is sprained, if not twisted completely, and her teammates are _missing_ and-

Breathe, breathe, no time to panic, have to _think._

She presses herself tight against the tree trunk, leans so that the maximum amount of foliage gives her cover, curls up small, and watches the earth below, heart pounding somewhere loud in her chest.

The fact that she’s being hunted really, really sucks on top of an already sucky situation, and she really, really should have gone to bed on time last night instead of working on some tricky Galra coding.

But this is fine, really, really. She’s functioned on less sleep, and gotten out of worst scenarios majorly unscathed. It’s just- tricky, right now. She needs to find her lion, find her team, rescue the prisoners, and then get the hell out of dodge, all the while avoiding getting captured or otherwise incapacitated herself.

Easy peasy. Piece of cake.

Except… not really. The ground is _crawling_ with Galra, and it’s only a matter of time until one of them realize they should start looking _up._

 _This,_ she thinks, _would be a really good time for a magical connection to a bunch of trees to pop into existence._

She waits a moment, wondering if the thought would summon the powers, but nothing happens.

The others, she gets a sense, already felt bonded to their… elements- _Ancients,_ Allura calls them, but Pidge is skeptical- before ever flying off into space. But to her, nature has always been something to avoid, always preferring to hide out in her room with the air conditioner blasting and music pounding through her ears. And she had always gotten along with her computers and coding much better than she ever had with her peers.

But, then again… she was there, watching the massive warship crash to the ground when by all standards it should fly ever higher. She was _there,_ saw Keith step out onto solid ground completely unscathed, the way his eyes shone with a sort of ethereal light, something beyond human.

The evidence held up with the Alteans claims, and, well-

What was that quote? Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

Except- except- Pidge can’t bring herself to believe it. She’s no ancient being of Life and power. She’s _Pidge,_ a fourteen year old human girl who likes peanut butter cookies and robots.

 _Yeah,_ a sarcastic voice inside her head mutters, _a fourteen year old human girl who just happens to fly a massive mechanical alien robo-lion, who mind melds with four other robo-lion pilots several times a week and lives on a giant castleship with ten thousand year old_ aliens, _fighting in an intergalactic war. Nothing out of the ordinary, here._

Which is… a good point. There’s nothing ordinary about her situation. Bit _still-_

And then suddenly, her foot slips on a tree branch, and Pidge is left scrambling to catch her balance, grabbing hold tightly onto the trunk and letting out a harsh breath of air, leaves rustling all around her.

She freezes, heart pounding, and below her a Galra soldier slowly looks up.

Well, then, there’s nothing for it.

Pidge drops down from her perch, right onto the guy’s soldiers, and uses her bayard to taser him into oblivion.

Easy, right?

Except, she looks up, and there are five more Galra looking right at here.

“...Shit.”

And _look,_ Pidge is a paladin of Voltron, okay? She’s _trained_ for this sort of stuff. But there’s a big difference between taking down a level three training simulator with her teammates in the castle ship and taking down five fully trained Galra soldiers all on her lonesome in unfamiliar territory. She’s just one person, and a rather small one at that.

That doesn’t stop her from going for it, though.

Nothing ever has.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, Allura whispers, _“Can you feel it?”_ with all the endless contradiction that is being alive.  _“Flowers blossom and wither with your every breath, and your every aspiration becomes a towering empire. When you tinker, a new species comes to life, and when you tense, mighty trees fall back down to earth. All of life is living with you, Pidge, and your eyes are full of stardust.”_

Pidge thinks back to a life full of impossible tasks faced and overcame, and realizes somewhere between diving under a massive blade swinging at her neck and avoiding the clawed hand that is grasping for her hair, that in the end, that is all life is.

Life is survival against all odds. It is adaptation. It is growing, growing, overcoming challenges and learning to embrace the constant contradiction that is everything all at once.

 _Breathe, breathe- it’s just another puzzle you solve along the way-_ and somewhere between one moment and the next hazel orbs begin to glow green.

And when she speaks, it is in a voice that is not quite her own. A voice that is older than any mossy plant or art scattered on a cave wall, a voice that is of the Ancients, and it rumbles through her chest like a lion’s purr.

 _“Hello,”_ she calls, and Galra all around her take cautious steps back in fear, _“Have you come to play?”_

And the forest comes to life beneath her feet, thick roots reaching for unsuspecting soldiers and smashing them into solid trunks of bark and solid surfaces of stone, and somewhere beyond her sight but not beyond her reach- _never beyond her reach-_ a pack of alien creatures descend on Galra guards as gentle vines pick her friends up and carry them to safety.

The enemy commander open fires as Pidge walks towards the prison where they are keeping the alien hostages. She doesn't even blink, unearthly green eyes shining out from the dark like a predator in the night.

She waves her hand in the air, and the commander drops to the ground like stone.

(She is life, she is the great giver, but one only truly lives because when it comes down to it, life _ends.)_

 

* * *

 

_Doubts and heartbreaks and strengths and weaknesses. In the end all they are is human. In the end, all they are is so much more._

_Pidge counts her breaths, and with each one she feels a thousand new spirits breathe their first and a thousand old ones breathe their last. Lance wipes at his face, tries to stop the way his hands shake, but with every tear that falls a hurricane spawns into existence. Keith coughs up blood and senses a hundred sunsets flare red and dark and then gone. Hunk breaks ribs in a nasty fall and with every snap he gasps with the shock of ancient caverns trembling and caving in. Shiro paces back and forth, back and forth, and his every step is a meteor falling out of alignment._

_Their souls thrum with music far older and grander than any other, and sometimes in the dead of night when everything is silent and still, it's almost like they can hear it, forgotten melodies that whisper the secrets of the stars and vibrate with the knowledge of all creation. The words echo in their hearts like a memory, and the Paladins long for a home they have always known and will never reach._

_These songs are playing in their heartbeats, those brief little pulses of a fragile body, and sometimes the notes are so loud it reverberates through their bones and makes something more than human._

_Voltron is the most powerful being in the universe because Voltron is the universe. When their minds meld it feels like suddenly their head space has opened up tenfold so they can finally utilize its full potential._

_There is an endlessness in their chests, something that extends beyond limits, beyond mortality. These are beings who will never be defeated because they will never truly vanish, never truly die, forever walking this same old path of life and rebirth._

_They are the harmonious balance of existence and its every disruption. They are every cheery sunny day and every endless storm, and this essence of their being thrums inside of them and will never stop._

_They have been searching all their lives for this, for each other. Coincidence is just the consequence of a game of chance they designed,and they have been playing it for all of eternity._

_They are born with every limit and they have surpassed them. They are of the Ancients. They are so much more._

_The universe has fallen out of alignment but it will not be for long. Five souls who have known each other for all of their existences, finding each other once more despite it all in a lifetime they can only call their own. There is a fierce love thrumming through their veins, a connection that cannot be denied to all that surrounds them. If you must stand in their way, stand in their way, but know you will not win._

_They have been dancing this dance for far longer than could ever be imagined. Their laughter is made of starlight. Their tears fall like an avalanche. A sigh is a windstorm, a stretch is a tidal wave. They smile and spring comes to set all the flowers abloom._

 

(They are of the Ancients. Listen to them _roar.)_

 

* * *

 

**_Breathe,_ Allura whispers, and it echoes beyond time, _Can you feel it?_**

 

**Inhale. Exhale.**

 

**Eyes wide open, and every one of them is full of stars.**

 

* * *

 

 


End file.
